Indians use smartphones 3 hours a day

NEW DELHI: Indian consumers spend more than three hours a day on their smartphones and a quarter check them over a 100 times a day, a new survey has revealed.

About one-third of the time they spend on smartphones is for using apps and this trend is expected to continue, said Ericsson ConsumerLab.

The technology insights firm polled 4,000 smartphone users across 18 Indian cities from April to June 2014 and found they spend 191 minutes a day on their devices, compared to 128 minutes a day watching TV.

The report said there had been a 20% rise in the average time spent by smartphone users over the past two years as well as a 63% increase in app usage.

Social and chat apps are the main drivers for buying a smartphone, the report said, but consumers are not just using mobile data for social purposes, but also for business and online shopping.

A full 40% of mature smartphone users say their usage is no longer just for social purposes and a quarter (24%) use mobile apps for business.

"Maturity is an important dimension in mobile broadband behaviour," said Ajay Gupta, vp strategy and marketing at Ericsson India.

"Mature users consume almost twice as much data as new users," he continued. "As consumers explore more apps and services relevant to their interests and needs, mobile broadband usage is set to grow."

However, network performance and app coverage were also found to influence perceptions with satisfied users experiencing three times better web page load times.

They also spend more time streaming videos via apps and staying connected using mobile for longer.

"Interestingly, smartphone users prioritised the service provider's ability to solve mobile data issues as and when they arise over cheap mobile data tariffs or plans," Gupta said.